


Ages Til the Sun Comes Along

by cashewdani



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-21
Updated: 2011-03-21
Packaged: 2017-11-05 08:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/pseuds/cashewdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But Ted knows he's always been a little more romantic than he's supposed to be, and so he tries to be a normal college guy, as much as he can in this crazy fucked up circumstance, and convinces himself it's just about sex, just about feeling good, just a thing he'll look back on and shake his head and wonder how he could ever be so young and carefree and stupid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ages Til the Sun Comes Along

**Author's Note:**

  * For [torigates](https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/gifts).



> Un-beta'ed. All mistakes are mine.

When Ted gets off the train, grimy and exhausted and forgetting what it's like to stand on solid ground, Marshall's waiting with the Fiero idling and it feels kind of exactly like when he saw Karen for the first time when he went home for Thanksgiving. Like he'd been missing someone so much and had been totally unaware of it. Marshall whips the car door open and is hugging him before Ted even realizes what's happening, too caught up in the fact that his saga known as public transportation is finally over. The duffel bag falls off his shoulder.

"I'm disgusting, man," he says, considerably more aware of how sweaty he is as Marshall's bare arm snakes around his neck. 

"Whatever, it's not every day we get ready to start our sophomore year. How was your summer?" Marshall says, patting him on his back, grinning and too tall and just like always.

Ted had been stuck sharing a bathroom with his sister, working camp, and mowing the lawn because his father was sick of doing it, but says, "It was good" like Marshall's enthusiasm is infectious. "What about you, how was the law office?"

Marshall grabs the suitcase and starts piling it into the trunk on top of a change of gym clothes and last semester's notebooks. "I can now take a coffee order better than ever before."

"The Supreme Court awaits your appointment."

Inside the Fiero, the air conditioner is going full blast, which Ted knows Marshall hates to do, and once again, this overwhelming feeling of gratefulness washes over him. He slouches down in the seat, and turns all of the vents on his side of the car towards himself. They listen to "1000 Miles" for the next 7 exits while Marshall fills him in on everything that's happened since June. How Lily's art seminar was, and that he was so pissed "Men in Black" never made it to their shitty local theater especially because Lily made him go see "My Best Friend's Wedding" twice, and that he's recently obsessed with this new "South Park" thing on the comedy channel. 

When the chorus comes around, they crack the windows and sing to the mostly empty streets of campus and Ted knows it's stupid, but he feels more at home here than he did all summer in Ohio.

\---

  
The first thing Ted wants to do is shower. Actually, he'd prefer to sleep more than anything on the planet, but the idea of climbing into his bed as disgusting as he is right now is horrifying. He risks any number of infections but he can't fathom trying to find his flip flops in his bags right now. Plus, the bathroom looks pretty good, and not yet caked in the filth of thirty male undergraduates.

The water's warm, and if he was home, he'd lean his forehead on the wall and let it just slide down his back. He's not, so he just cleans himself as quickly as possible with the soap he borrowed from Marshall. His pajama bottoms get wet when he's trying to put them on, and his glasses feel like they're going to be permanently fogged up, but he's so close to getting what he's dreamed of all day, uninterrupted rest.

When he stumbles back to his room, he finds that Lily has put the sheets on his bed for him and he falls into it, saying he loves her and he loves Marshall for keeping her around, and the two of them just laugh from the bottom bunk where they have _U2_ quietly playing on the stereo.

Ted falls asleep to Bono's voice and Lily's giggles and is so thankful that Marshall and his names were matched up somehow in a housing office before they'd even graduated from high school.

\---

  
Ted swore he wasn't going to drink as much this year. That it was time to buckle down and focus on getting a slot at the radio station and making Dean's List. But then there's the welcome back to school mixer and it's Thirsty Thursday, and Friday night and Saturday afternoon before the game, and maybe it was stupid to have even had avoiding alcoholism as a goal.

Tonight, they're at a frat house because they found out last year that if you pretend like you might rush, you can drink pretty much at any of the Greek places on campus. Ted's had way too many cups of Natty, and he knows in the morning he's going to regret it, but right now he's half dancing, half grinding on some girl he thinks he has Introduction to Poetry with.

Across the room, Marshall raises his own cup towards Ted, and he pulls the girl closer, so there's no doubt that all they're doing is basically having sex with their clothes on.

In the morning, he's sure he's going to regret every choice he's making, but whatever, there's always next weekend to try to be a little bit better.

\---

  
He was right, because he woke up on Sunday morning, he thinks about three hours after he went to bed, because that girl was getting sick into his garbage can. The dorm smelled like puke for the rest of the day and it had done nothing to help his headache.

But when Lily was busy in her room packing to go home for her grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary yesterday, and Marshall couldn't stop talking about going to see this local band, Ted knew they were going to drink again. And probably not just drink, but get to the point where later in the night one of them was going to turn to the other and say, "Drink up now, because after college this is considered alcoholism." 

He wonders if you know you're old when that makes you leave the bar and sober up, rather than ordering another round.

"Madonna's Stalker" is the band that's been wallpapering campus with bright pink fliers, and Ted has no idea why Marshall is so obsessed with them, but it'll be a good time, especially because Ted knows the guy who gives out drink stamps from the freshman writing seminar.

They start out with shots before the band has even taken the stage, and yeah, Ted's not going to remember "Madonna's Stalker" a few weeks from now, forget about in the morning.

\---

  
They may have been the last people to leave the bar. Ted vaguely recalls the bartender walking out first and motioning at them to follow. He feels good about shutting the place down when he's not even legal yet.

"That band was awesome, Ted, right? And the second set! WITH THE DRUMMING!" Marshall starts doing an air solo, rapping his knuckles against the buildings as they walk past in a way that must be roughing them up. "I loved them. So great."

The streets of town are filled with other drunken stragglers, heading back to their dorms, or to the diner for some hopeful hangover cures, but when they turn down onto the quad, things are quieter. Subdued and removed, and the only sound is Marshall's hands and feet beating out a rhythm. "Thanks for telling me to go tonight."

"Oh, no way I was I letting you miss out on that."

"Do you want to go see them at their next gig?" Ted feels weird, saying gig, like it's a word he uses.

"You know I would go see them again. I MIGHT EVEN BUY A T-SHIRT!!"

Ted laughs at the enthusiasm, even though this is Marshall who is always enthusiastic, like rooming with a chocolate lab. "Make sure you ask for the set list."

"Please, I'm asking for the set list." Ted stumbles over something, a divot in the grass or a tree root, or more likely his own feet, and Marshall snorts while hauling Ted up by his armpits like he weighs nothing at all. "You've got to watch where you're going," Marshall says, and Ted can still feel him holding him as he takes another few steps. Marshall's hands are huge, and warm, and they feel steadying even though Ted's heart is suddenly beating a little bit faster. He stops short, and Marshall bumps into his back, seemingly caught off guard at the change in movement, and Marshall's _so tall_ and solid and Ted's crazy.

"You're drunk," Marshall tells him and Ted responds with the very mature, "No, _you're_ drunk," turning around to push against Marshall's chest sloppily with is hand. How Marshall doesn't budge, even though he's also wasted as fuck makes Ted start giggling and it gets Marshall going, and then Ted is stretching up on his tiptoes, grabbing Marshall's shoulders for the extra leverage, and kissing him. Just out of the moonlight on the lawn of their dorm, Ted is kissing Marshall, his glasses askew and probably fogging up.

They kiss for a long time, longer than they should be kissing when they're not gay and Marshall has a girlfriend, and when anyone could walk by and see them. But it's nice, kissing Marshall, and Ted doesn't want to stop, and he doesn't want something to make them stop. And he's thinking about how he and Marshall are going to go up to the same room no matter what happens, and that they can just laugh it off and play some video games and then pass out on the floor while the menu repeats, or that maybe tonight he's going to blow Marshall, or Marshall's going to blow him, and that would be great too. Weirdly enough, that would be great too.

\---

  
They don't do anything more than kiss, that first night, the night of the shots and "Madonna's Stalker" and Marshall's knuckles getting all scraped up. The next morning while he's smearing Neosporin on them, he says, "What was I thinking?" and Ted feels this tight twist in his gut at the vague way that's phrased.

Lily comes back with stories about New York and her cousins and it's like he and Marshall both decided not to talk about what happened without ever saying it.

\---

  
But the thing is, Ted thinks about it. A lot. And he knows Marshall does too because there will be times that their eyes meet over Lily's head, and there's something there that shouldn't be. A spark or a connection or _something_ , this event Ted can't explain and it's killing him. He thinks about Marshall lying underneath him at night, just right there, and all the ways that scenario can be different. It consumes him, this thing with Marshall that's not even a thing, and he's hungry but never getting full.

And one almost morning, after a lot of joints and too many conversations about what the best possible ice cream sundae would be made out of, Lily's konked out on the bed, snoring a little, and Marshall shotguns a hit into Ted's mouth. He holds onto it for as long as he can, but then he's breathing out and kissing Marshall, all wet and heavy and satisfied.

His pulse matches the same rhythm as last time, even with all the depressants in his system, and Marshall grunts when Ted bites his lip, and Lily doesn't even stir.

\---

  
She has classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, early, and Marshall must suggest to her that she start sleeping in her own room somehow, because Mondays and Wednesdays become the nights that he and Ted start out studying, or watching MTV, and wind up pressed up against one another, the sounds they're making muffled by the other's mouth.

Ted has never come as hard as he does with Marshall, all messy and blissed out, and it's so forbidden and sneaky and Ted loves it. He didn't expect to, but he does. The secrecy is incredible, and Ted gets why Karen does this all the time. He walks around campus wondering if anyone can tell. If Lily knows and just can't bring herself to ask. If Marshall has the same thoughts.

And that's the one part that's weird. The more they fool around, the less they talk, like there's no time for anything else. Like they both know this is a short lived thing and there'll be plenty of time to talk about whatever bullshit they used to fill the time with. But even without the words, without the knowledge and insight and normalcy, somewhere in there, Ted thinks he starts to fall in love with Marshall. It feels like it anyway.

But Ted knows he's always been a little more romantic than he's supposed to be, and so he tries to be a normal college guy, as much as he can in this crazy fucked up circumstance, and convinces himself it's just about sex, just about feeling good, just a thing he'll look back on and shake his head and wonder how he could ever be so young and carefree and stupid.

\---

  
Ted doesn't know whose idea it was to hit Gazzola's, it's hard to remember with all the caffeine and grease and exhaustion in his system, but they drove all the way there and stuffed themselves, and it feels like this special thing. Like something that seals him and Marshall together, more than they've already sealed themselves. The wind coming in the windows all warm and smelling of asphalt and exhaust makes Ted still want to breathe deep, feel alive.

He hasn't felt alone with Marshall in weeks, even though there have been plenty of times it's just the two of them in the room. Lily's just always there, on the edge, and Ted wants to ask for her to go, even if it would mean giving up the excitement, the threat of being caught, but he can't ask Marshall for that. So, this is good, driving for hours, Marshall's hand on his thigh, forgetting there's a real world that they live in.

The sun's barely been up for thirty minutes when Marshall hits the turn signal, taking some random off ramp, but he doesn't look tired like it's time to switch drivers, and he's not fidgeting like he's got to pee. "Detour?"

"I just want to try something," Marshall says, and Ted'll let him. Anything Marshall wants, he'll give it a shot.

Which is how even though Ted hasn't slept in over 26 hours he's letting Marshall suck his dick off in the parking lot of what he thinks is a Home Depot and the fireworks are going off behind his eyes like it's the Fourth of fucking July as he comes into the mouth that he shared a Tantrum with two states back.

"Let's do this road trip again. I want to do this again," Ted says, while Marshall kisses along his jaw, because he can't say that he never wants to go home.

\---

  
Marshall takes Lily to the airport for her summer internship in Paris, and then comes back to Ted.

They fuck like rabbits, the air conditioner humming in the background, for the three weeks until Marshall goes out to visit her. When he comes back, he can't stop talking about how he was jealous of this guy she met and how he thinks he honestly loves her. 

He never mentions that things with Ted are done, but they are.

And the only way Ted can pretend like it's not a big deal, like he knew things were going to be this way all the time, is to take a cab to the train station and go back to Ohio until fall semester starts up again.

He'll worry about how he's getting back to campus then.


End file.
